Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Tripartite guanxi: resolving kin and non-kin discontinuities in Chinese connections

  • Published:
Theory and Society Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

A consensus holds that guanxi, understood as dyadic connections consolidated affectively and mobilized to achieve the purposes of members, exists in three forms (family guanxi, friendship guanxi, and acquaintance guanxi) distinguished by the strength of felt obligation between participants. It is also held that through practices of fictive kinship friendship guanxi may merge with family guanxi. This article challenges these propositions and the assumptions underlying them. Obligations of kinship and guanxi obligations are fundamentally dissimilar and the term “family guanxi” is redundant. Pseudo-family ties do not provide access to kin relations and their resources but instead affirm the distinction between family- and friendship-ties. Finally, because guanxi is cultivated by its participants, friendship guanxi and acquaintance guanxi are not distinct forms but rather are different possible stages of guanxi formation. The article goes on to consider the sources of these confusions, namely, common-language terms employed in sociological analysis, certain assumptions concerning Chinese culture, and finally methodological commitments that privilege latent structures of strong ties. The strength of guanxi ties, on the other hand, volitionally cultivated and indifferent to structural determination, fluctuates through agentic practices.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Arkush, R. D. (1981). Fei Xiaotong and sociology in revolutionary China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baker, H. D. R. (1979). Chinese family and kinship. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barbalet, J. (2015). Guanxi, tie strength, and network attributes. American Behavioral Scientist, 59(8), 1038–1050.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barbalet, J. (2020). The analysis of Chinese rural society: Fei Xiaotong revisited. Modern China, OnlineFirst, (16 January), 009770041989492. https://doi.org/10.1177/0097700419894921.

  • Bian, Y. (1994). Guanxi and the allocation of urban jobs in China. The China Quarterly, 140, 971–999.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bian, Y. (2001). Guanxi capital and social eating in Chinese cities. In N. Lin, K. Cook, & R. S. Burt (Eds.), Social capital: Theory and research (pp. 275–295). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bian, Y. (2006). Guanxi. In J. Beckert & M. Zafirovski (Eds.), International encyclopedia of economic sociology (pp. 312–314). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bian, Y. (2018). The prevalence and the increasing significance of guanxi. The China Quarterly, 235, 597–621.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bian, Y. (2019). Guanxi: How China works. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blau, P. M. (2017). Exchange and power in social life (new ed.). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blum, S. D. (1997). Naming practices and the power of words in China. Language in Society, 26(3), 357–379.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boisot, M., & Child, J. (1996). From fiefs to clans to network capitalism: Explaining China’s emerging economic order. Administrative Science Quarterly, 41(4), 600–628.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brennan, G., & Pettit, P. (2004). The economy of esteem: An essay on civil and political society. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cai, Q. (2003). Migrant remittances and family ties: A case study in China. International Journal of Population Geography, 9(6), 471–483.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chang, X. (2010). Guanxi or lishang wanglai? Reciprocity, social support networks and social creativity in a Chinese village. Taipei, Taiwan: Airiti Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chao, Y. R. (1956). Chinese terms of address. Language, 32(1), 217–241.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen, C. C., Chen, X.-P., & Huang, S. (2013). Chinese guanxi: An integrative review and directions for future research. Management and Organization Review, 9(1), 167–207.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen, T. S., & Shryock, J. K. (1932). Chinese relationship terms. American Anthropologist, New Series, 34(4), 623–664.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen, X-P., & Chen, C. C. (2004). On the intricacies of the Chinese guanxi: A process model of guanxi development. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 21(3), 305–324.

  • Cheng, C.-K. (1939). The Chinese large family system and its disorganization. Social Forces, 17(4), 538–545.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cheng, Z., Nielsen, I., & Smyth, R. (2013). Determinants of wage arrears and their implications for the socioeconomic wellbeing of China’s migrant workers, Department of Economics Discussion Paper 50/13. Monash University.

  • China Daily (2014). Summary of China’s migrant population report for 2013. China Daily, 16 May. Available at: www.chinadaily.com.cn/m/chinahealth/2014-05/16/content_17514058 .htm.

  • Choi, S. Y. P., & Peng, Y. (2016). Masculine compromise: Migration, family and gender in China. Oakland, CA: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chow, T.-t. (1960). The may fourth movement: Intellectual revolution in modern China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chun, A. (2012). From sinicization to indigenization in the social sciences. In A. Dirlik, G. Li, & H.-P. Yen (Eds.), Sociology and anthropology in twentieth-century China (pp. 255–282). Hong Kong: Chinese University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coleman, J. S. (1990). Foundations of social theory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Evasdottir, E. E. S. (2004). Obedient autonomy: Chinese intellectuals and the achievement of orderly life. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai’i Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fan, Y. (2002). Questioning guanxi: Definition, classification and implications. International Business Review, 11(5), 543–561.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fei, H. T. (1939). Peasant life in China: A field study of county life in the Yangtze valley. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fei, X. (1992). From the soil: The foundations of Chinese society. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Finch, J. (1994). Family obligations and social change. Cambridge: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freedman, M. (1979). The study of Chinese society. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fried, M. H. (1953). Fabric of Chinese society: A study of the social life of a Chinese county seat. New York: Praeger.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fu, P. P., Tsui, A. S., & Dess, G. G. (2006). The dynamics of guanxi in Chinese hightech firms: Implications for knowledge management and decision making. Management International Review, 46(3), 1–29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fuligni, A. J., & Zhang, W. (2004). Attitudes toward family obligation among adolescents in contemporary urban and rural China. Child Development, 74(1), 180–192.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gold, T. B. (1985). After comradeship: Personal relations in China since the cultural revolution. The China Quarterly, 104, 657–675.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gold, T., Guthrie, D., & Wank, D. (Eds.). (2002). Social connections in China: Institutions, culture and the changing nature of guanxi. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goossaert, V. (2006). 1898: The beginning of the end for Chinese religion. Journal of Asian Studies, 65(2), 307–336.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gransow, B. (2001). “Nontranslatable:” indigenous concepts in social science research on China. Asian Journal of Social Science, 29(1), 262–284.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guo, C., & Miller, J. K. (2010). Guanxi dynamics and entrepreneurial firm creation and development in China. Management and Organization Review, 6(2), 267–291.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guo, M., Chi, I., & Silverstein, M. (2012). The structure of intergenerational relations in rural China: A latent class analysis. Journal of Marriage and Family, 74(5), 1114–1128.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hsu, F. L.-K. (1943). The myth of Chinese family size. American Journal of Sociology, 48(5), 555–562.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hu, F., Xu, Z., & Chen, Y. (2011). Circular migration, or permanent stay? Evidence from China’s rural-urban migration. China Economic Review, 22(1), 64–74.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huang, P., & Zhan, S. (2008). Migrant workers’ remittances and rural development in China. In J. DeWind & J. Holdaway (Eds.), Migration and development within and across borders (pp. 221–245). New York: Social Science Research Council.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hwang, K.-k. (1987). Face and favor: The Chinese power game. American Journal of Sociology, 92(4), 944–974.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jacobs, J. B. (1979). A preliminary model of particularistic ties in Chinese political alliances: Kan-ch’ing and kuan-hsi in a rural Taiwanese township. The China Quarterly, 78, 237–273.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jordan, D. K. (1985). Sworn brothers: A study in Chinese ritual kinship. In J.-C. Hsieh & Y.-C. Chuang (Eds.), The Chinese family and its ritual behavior (pp. 232–262). Taipei: Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kang, X. (2013). Confucianism and conceiving a cultural renaissance in the new century. Contemporary Chinese Thought, 44(2), 61–75.

    Google Scholar 

  • King, A. Y.-c. (1991). Kuan-hsi and network building: A sociological interpretation. Daedalus, 120(2), 63–84.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kipnis, A. B. (1997). Producing guanxi: Sentiment, self, and subculture in a North China village. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee, R. H. (1949). Research on the Chinese family. American Journal of Sociology, 54(6), 497–504.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lin, J.-P., & Yi, C.-C. (2013). A comparative analysis of intergenerational relations in East Asia. International Sociology, 28(3), 297–315.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lin, N. (2001). Guanxi: A conceptual analysis. In A. Y. So, N. Lin, & D. Poston (Eds.), The Chinese triangle of mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong: Comparative institutional analysis (pp. 153–166). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liu, L., & Mei, S. (2015). How can an indigenous concept enter the international academic circle: The case of guanxi. Scientometrics, 105(1), 645–663.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lu, W., & Zhao, X. (2009). Liang Shuming’s viewpoint of Chinese and Western cultures in The substance of Chinese culture. Contemporary Chinese Thought, 40(3), 52–66.

    Google Scholar 

  • Luo, J.-D. (2011). Guanxi revisited: An exploratory study of familiar ties in a Chinese workplace. Management and Organization Review, 7(2), 329–351.

    Google Scholar 

  • Luo, J.-D., Cheng, M.-Y., & Zhang, T. (2016). Guanxi circle and organizational citizenship behavior: Context of a Chinese workplace. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 33(3), 649–671.

    Google Scholar 

  • Luo, Y. (2007). Guanxi and business. Singapore: World Scientific.

    Google Scholar 

  • McNally, N. (2011). China’s changing guanxi capitalism: Private entrepreneurs between Leninist control and relentless accumulation. Business and Politics, 13(2), 1–29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Makeham, J. (2008). Lost soul: “Confucianism” in contemporary Chinese academic discourse. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Merton, R. K. (1968). Social theory and social structure (enlarged ed.). New York: The Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Michael, F. (1955). State and society in nineteenth-century China. World Politics, 7(3), 419–433.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murphy, R. (2002). How migrant labor is changing rural China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Newell, W. H. (1985). Structural conflicts within the Chinese family. In J.-C. Hsieh & Y.-C. Chuang (Eds.), The Chinese family and its ritual behavior (pp. 84–93). Taipei: Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica.

    Google Scholar 

  • Osburg, J. (2013). Anxious wealth: Money and morality among China’s new rich. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pan, Y., & Kádárb, D. Z. (2011). Historical vs. contemporary Chinese linguistic politeness. Journal of Pragmatics, 43(6), 1525–1539.

    Google Scholar 

  • Qi, X. (2015). Filial obligation in contemporary China: Evolution of the culture-system. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 45(1), 141–161.

    Google Scholar 

  • Qi, X. (2017). Reconstructing the concept of face in cultural sociology: In Goffman’s footsteps, following the Chinese case. Journal of Chinese Sociology, 4(19), 1–17.

    Google Scholar 

  • Qi, X. (2018). Floating grandparents: Rethinking family obligation and intergenerational support. International Sociology, 33(6), 761–777.

    Google Scholar 

  • Redding, S. G. (1993). The spirit of Chinese capitalism. Berlin: de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Santos, G. D. (2008). On “same-year siblings” in rural South China. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 14(3), 535–553.

    Google Scholar 

  • Skinner, G. W. (1964). Marketing and social structure in rural China: Part I. Journal of Asian Studies, 24(1), 3–43.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smart, A. (1998). Guanxi, gifts and learning from China: A review essay. Anthropos, 93(4/6), 559–565.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smart, A. (1999). Expressions of interest: Friendship and guanxi in Chinese societies. In S. Bell & S. Coleman (Eds.), The anthropology of friendship (pp. 119–136). Oxford: Berg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stinchcombe, A. L. (1968). Constructing social theories. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stover, L. E. (1974). The cultural ecology of Chinese civilization: Peasants and elite in the last of the agrarian states. New York: Pica Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Swedberg, R. (2019). On the use of definitions in sociology. European Journal of Social Theory, Online First, March., 136843101983185. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368431019831855.

  • Tong, C. K., & Yong, P. K. (1998). Guanxi bases, xinyong and Chinese business networks. British Journal of Sociology, 49(1), 75–96.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang, B. X., & Rowley, C. (2017). Business networks and the emergence of guanxi capitalism in China. In J. Nolan, C. Rowley, & M. Warner (Eds.), Business networks in east Asian capitalisms: Enduring trends, emerging patterns (pp. 93–118). London: Elsevier.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang, M. (2012). South East and South West: Searching for the link between “research regions.” In A. Dirlik, G. Li, and H-P. Yen (Eds.), Sociology and anthropology in twentieth-century China (pp. 161–190). Hong Kong: Chinese University Press.

  • Wank, D. L. (1996). The institutional process of market clientelism: Guanxi and private business in a South China city. The China Quarterly, 147, 820–838.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wank, D. L. (1999). Commodifying communism: Business, trust and politics in a Chinese city. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wank, D. L. (2009). Local state takeover in China’s private sector: The Yuanhua smuggling case. In T.-W. Ngo (Ed.), Rent seeking in contemporary China (pp. 79–91). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weng, Y., & Xu, H. (2018). How guanxi affects job search outcomes in China? Job match and job turnover. China Economic Review., 51, 70–82.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whyte, M. K. (2005). Continuity and change in urban Chinese family life. The China Journal, 53, 9–33.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wu, Y., & Wall, M. (2019). The ties that bind: How the dominance of WeChat combines with guanxi to inhibit and constrain China’s contentious politics. New Media & Society., 21(8), 1714–1733.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wu, Y. (1990). The usages of kinship address forms amongst non-kin in mandarin Chinese: The extension of family solidarity. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 10(1), 61–88.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yan, Y. (1996). The flow of gifts: Reciprocity and social networks in a Chinese village. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yang, C. K. (1959). A Chinese village in early communist transition. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yang, M. M.-h. (1994). Gifts, favors and banquets: The art of social relationship in China. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Funding

This study has received no funding.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University, Locked Bag 4115 MDC, Fitzroy, Victoria, 3065, Australia

    Jack Barbalet

  2. Department of Social and Political Change, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

    Jack Barbalet

Authors
  1. Jack Barbalet
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jack Barbalet.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The author declares that he has no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Barbalet, J. Tripartite guanxi: resolving kin and non-kin discontinuities in Chinese connections. Theor Soc 50, 151–173 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-020-09399-w

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-020-09399-w

Keywords

Search

Navigation